TTT: Schandmaul - German Medieval Rock

It is time for another #ThreeTuneTuesday. For those not familiar with it, here's an explanation.

About 79 Weeks ago @ablaze started this incredible movement:

Every Tuesday I'm going to share 3 songs which I like to listen to and I invite your feedback in the comments below. Or why not have a blast of your own Three Tune Tuesday and mention me in the post and I'll come and find the post and hopefully upvote it. It'll be a sweet way for us all to discover new music.

Last time I told you how my wife introduced me to new music when I met her. Today I want to tell you a little more about those days.

The summer after I met her she invited me to go to "Medieval Spectaculum" together. A group of people touring the country from spring to autumn hosting a medieval style market/carnival.

A lot of those people who were visiting the market put on special clothes to fit the theme. From Friday night until Sunday the field outside a nearby village was from a different time.

In the afternoon there was a show tournament and in the evening a band was playing. Schandmaul (direct translation: malicious tongue) was the first "medieval rock" band I ever heard and I was blown away.

This is one of their "drinking" or "tavern" songs.

(If the embedded player does not do so, skip ahead to 2:27 for the song. If you understand German and want to hear about the history of that song listen to the first two minutes)

It was some 20 years ago (the picture above is from this May though). The "Medieval Spectaculum" was very small, only a few booths were up, offering bread and other food or some clothes and accessories. Today it is a huge event, covering more and more fields.

I grew up in a very old town in middle Germany. Built in 13th century and proud of its history, I was exposed to the theme but never before in such a way. My home town is not far away from the mountain called "Brocken" and legend has it that on the night from April 31st to May 1st all witches come together to celebrate "Walpurgisnacht" on that mountain. Dancing and flying on their brooms around a fire. It is still celebrated there although not with such a commitment to the medieval theme.

And of course, if you are a medieval rock band, you must have a song about that in your repertoire.

Now as you can see from that older video, back then they were playing for a smaller audience. And in 2004 when I first listened to them, they were well known among medieval rock fans but not to a broader audience.

Just three years later they were playing at the "Wacken" metal festival in front of some 12.000 people and finished their performance with one of their most iconic love songs.

I am still fascinated by this band. The mix of medieval and modern instruments gives this music such a mystical touch.

The lyrics of their songs reflect this mix. You can find words in there from medieval times as well as some phrasings and even grammatical structures.

So if you are not a native speaker of the German language, do not worry if you have some trouble understanding the lyrics. Or you might see it as a challenge to learn even more German. 😉

In 2013 they developed a little "side project". With most of the band members becoming parents, they started writing children songs but kept their style. With a young boy named "Schandmäulchen" (deminutive of their band name) living in medieval times, they wrote a 3 CD audio play "Schandmäulchen's Adventures" which includes a song every ~10 minutes to drive the plot along.

It is a very nice listen and beautiful story for preschool kids.

Thank you for reading and listening.

Keep on rocking 🤘

Bis zum nächsten mal.

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_{The embedded videos and songs are not mine, nor do I own any rights to them. They are embedded from youtube and serve an illustrative purpose for this article}

_{Header image created with Canva
Divider created with Canva
Picture of "Tournament Knights" taken by me.}